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[Animals] 400-year-old 'Muga dhambi' is one of the largest and oldest corals in the Great Barrier Reef

https://www.livescience.com/ Australian scientists have discovered one of the largest and oldest coral colonies in the Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest coral reef system on Earth. The massive coral belongs to the genus Porites and measures 34 feet (10.4 meters) wide and 17.4 feet (5.3 m) tall, making it the widest and sixth-tallest coral in the Great Barrier Reef. Snorkelers found the record-breaking coral off the coast of Goolboodi, part of the Palm Island Group in Queensland, Australia, and they named it "Muga dhambi" — meaning "big coral" in the language of the Manbarra people, who are the Indigenous people of Palm Islands. The researchers found that the massive coral has been around for between 421 and 438 years, meaning that it predates the colonization of Australia. The colony has survived centuries of exposure to invasive species, coral bleaching events and low tides, as well as around 80 major cyclones, the researchers said. "The structure is probably one of the oldest on the Great Barrier Reef," Nathan Cook, a marine scientist at Reef Ecologic, an NGO in Australia specializing in corals, told Live Science. Corals are colonial animals that get a majority of their energy from a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae called Zooxanthellae. The colony is connected by a skeleton made out of calcium carbonate from the surrounding seawater, which slowly grows over time. Muga dhambi's incredible girth is the result of its hard skeleton, which requires extra stability in the water, whereas more flexible soft corals require a less solid foundation "These massive colonies grow in a hemispherical shape, likely prioritising width over height for stability," Cook said. "It is difficult for any hard coral species to grow really tall without breaking." Other Porites corals in the Pacific grew even larger than Muga dhambi; in American Samoa, one coral colony was recorded at an astonishing 56.8 feet (17 m) wide and 39.4 feet (12 m) tall. That reef is outside of the Great Barrier Reef, but it does suggest the possibility of finding even larger Porites colonies in the Great Barrier Reef, Cook said. "There are many unexplored corners of the Great Barrier Reef," Cook said. "It is possible there are larger coral colonies waiting to be documented by intrepid citizen scientists." Ancient colonies like Muga dhambi provide scientists with a rare opportunity to learn more about the reef conditions as the corals grow. "Large coral colonies are like historical repositories holding secrets within their calcium carbonate skeletons," Cook said. Similar to taking cores of Antarctic ice sheets to see how atmospheric conditions have changed over time, it is possible to take samples of coral skeletons to see how ocean conditions on the Great Barrier Reef have changed, he added. Unfortunately, this is only likely to confirm what scientists already know — that ocean conditions are becoming much more inhospitable to corals. "Corals are sensitive to environmental changes, particularly rising sea temperature," Cook said. "There has been a decline of 50% of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 30 years," he added, making them the "canaries in the coal mine" for climate change. Researchers remain hopeful that even if a majority of coral cover is lost, resilient colonies like Muga dhambi could continue to survive in the future. The colony is in very good health with 70% consisting of live coral and the rest being covered with sponge and non-symbiotic algae. "Due to the increasing severity and intensity of disturbances to ecosystems worldwide, corals like this are becoming increasingly rare," Cook said. "As optimists, we hope that Muga dhambi will survive for many more years, but it will require a big change in human impacts."

August 22, 2021

[News] China changes law to allow married couples to have up to three children

MERNIZ posted a topic in News

https://www.nbcnews.com/?icid=nav_bar_logo China will allow married couples to legally have up to three children amid concerns that the number of working-age people in the world’s most populous country is falling too fast, consequently threatening its hopes of increased prosperity and global influence in the future. The ceremonial legislature amended the Po[CENSORED]tion and Family Planning Law on Friday as part of a decades-long effort by the ruling Communist Party to dictate the size of families in keeping with political directives. Xinhua news agency, a Chinese state media organization, reported back in May that the law change had been approved during a Communist Party Politburo meeting chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Communist Party has enforced birth limits since 1980 to restrain po[CENSORED]tion growth. China's declining birthrate is partially a result of a one-child policy imposed in 1979. The country long touted such policy as a success in preventing 400 million additional births, thus saving resources and helping drive economic growth. Couples who didn’t abide by the one-child policy faced losing their jobs and being fined. In some cases, mothers were forced to have abortions or be sterilized. A preference for sons also led parents to kill baby girls, leading to a massive imbalance in the sex ratio. Restrictions in family planning laws were eased for the first time in 2015, allowing families to have up to two children as officials acknowledged the looming consequences of the plummeting birthrate. But that change did little to curb the country's declining birthrate. Statistics show that there were 12 million births last year, down from 14.65 million in 2019, an 18 percent decline, continuing China's descent to a near six-decade low. Recommended At the same time, the number of Chinese people over the age of 60 reached 264 million, accounting for 18.7 percent of the country’s total po[CENSORED]tion in 2020, which is nearly six percentage points higher than in 2010. During that same time period, China's working-age po[CENSORED]tion fell to 63.3 percent of the total from 70.1 percent a decade ago. A combination of these trends has caused an overwhelming fear that China will grow old before it becomes wealthy. At its session Friday, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress canceled the leveling of fines for breaking the earlier restrictions and called for additional parental leave and childcare resources. New measures in finance, taxation, schooling, housing and employment should be introduced “to ease the burden on families,” the amendment said. It also seeks to address longstanding discrimination against pregnant women and new mothers in the workplace that is considered one of the chief disincentives to having additional children, along with high costs and cramped housing.